System for providing digital content and advertising among multiple entities

Abstract

A system for providing digital content and digital advertisements to users provides digital content via the Internet, in combination with time-shifted advertisements that may be presented by an application that resides on the user's computer. The system may operate in a wholly or partially automated manner, providing automated, self-service interfaces for one or more of the following groups: advertisers, content providers, publishers, and users. The system receives digital advertisement data from advertisers, which can include or consist of a link to an advertiser's website. Advertisers provide compensation based on the presentation of their advertisements to users. The system receives digital content from content providers. Content providers receive compensation when users access digital content provided by content providers. Publishers may access digital content from the system and provide the content to users through one or more user interfaces.

1 . A system for providing digital content and advertisements to users, the system comprising: 
 an automated, self-service advertiser interface for advertisers, wherein the advertiser interface is used by the advertisers to provide digital advertisements, and wherein the advertisers provide compensation based on presenting the digital advertisements to the users;    an automated, self-service content-provider interface for providers of digital content, wherein the content-provider interface is used by the providers of digital content to provide content to the users, wherein the digital content is visual content, audio content, audio-visual content, or an application, and wherein the providers of digital content receive a first portion of the advertiser-provided compensation based on access of the digital content by the users;    a publisher interface for publishers of the digital content, wherein the publisher interface is configured to provide the publishers with access to the digital content or to links for accessing the digital content, wherein the publisher provides at least one user interface for the users to access the content, and wherein the publishers receive a second portion of the advertiser-provided compensation based on access of the provided digital content by the users;    an automated, self-service user interface for the users of the digital content, wherein the user interface is configured to provide users with access to view or listen to the digital content; and,    at least one central server coupled among the advertiser, content-provider, publisher, and user interfaces, wherein the central server is configured to: 
 store or access the digital content and the advertisements,  
 provide the digital content and the advertisements to the users,  
 receive the advertiser-provided compensation from the advertisers, and  
 provide the first and second portions of the advertiser-provided compensation to the publishers and the content providers, respectively.  
   
   
   
       2 . The system of  claim 1  wherein the advertiser interface is configured to permit each of the advertisers to specify at least one category for each of its digital advertisements and at least one target associated with each of its digital advertisements.  
   
   
       3 . The system of  claim 1  wherein the content-provider interface is configured to permit each of the content-providers to specify one or more categories associated with each of its digital content files.  
   
   
       4 . The system of  claim 1  wherein the publisher interface is configured to allow publishers to browse or search for digital content.  
   
   
       5 . The system of  claim 1  wherein the digital advertisements are time-shifted, wherein the time shifting includes providing one or more of the digital advertisements to at least one of the users when the user conducts an Internet-based search.  
   
   
       6 . The system of  claim 1  wherein the advertiser interface is configured to permit each of the advertisers to set a bid amount for each of its digital advertisements, wherein the bid amount is an amount of compensation the advertiser is willing to provide for presentation of its digital advertisement to a user.  
   
   
       7 . The system of  claim 1  wherein the digital content is provided free to users in exchange for viewing the digital advertisements.  
   
   
       8 . The system of  claim 1  wherein the server computer provides a client-side application to user computers for viewing or listening to the digital content and for viewing the advertisements.  
   
   
       9 . The system of  claim 1  wherein the advertiser interface is configured to permit each of the advertisers to choose the content with which its advertisements will be associated, including choosing the content with which its advertisements will not be associated.  
   
   
       10 . The system of  claim 1  wherein a subset of available content is automatically selected for display by a publisher.  
   
   
       11 . A method for providing digital content and advertisements to a client computer system via a client-side application for providing access to the digital content and to the advertisements, the method comprising: 
 receiving a request from the client computer system to access digital content;    determining whether the client computer system has the client-side application for displaying the digital content and the advertisements installed;    if the client computer system does not have the client-side application installed, providing instructions for installing the client-side application in exchange for providing access to the requested digital content;    if the client computer system does have the client-side application installed, providing access to the requested digital content; and    providing digital advertisements to the client computer system after providing the requested digital content.    
   
   
       12 . The method of  claim 11  wherein digital content previously accessible by the client computer system will no longer be accessible by the client computer system if the client-side application is uninstalled.  
   
   
       13 . The method of  claim 11  wherein providing the digital advertisements includes providing one or more of the digital advertisements when a user conducts an Internet-based search.  
   
   
       14 . The method of  claim 11  wherein the digital content includes a digital rights management portion that prohibits or inhibits the client computer from playing the digital content unless the client-side application is installed on the client computer.  
   
   
       15 . A computer-readable medium carrying instructions for a method to permit a publisher to readily provide digital content and advertisements to multiple, geographically distributed client computers via a public computer network, the method comprising: 
 providing a search interface for permitting the publisher to search a database of digital content to identify desired digital content;    providing access to the desired digital content or to links for accessing the desired digital content;    wherein the publisher provides at least one user interface for accessing the desired digital content;    wherein the publisher automatically receives a portion of advertiser-provided compensation based on access to the desired digital content, or based on requests to access the desired digital content, by the multiple, geographically distributed client computers; and,    wherein digital advertisements associated with the advertiser-provided compensation are provided to the multiple, geographically distributed client computers after receiving access to at least some of the desired digital content.    
   
   
       16 . The computer-readable medium of  claim 15  wherein each of the client computers include a client-side application for providing access to the digital content and to the digital advertisements.  
   
   
       17 . The computer-readable medium of  claim 15 , further comprising automatically providing digital content to the publisher, wherein the automatically provided digital content includes currently determined popular digital content.  
   
   
       18 . A system for receiving digital content and advertisements, the system comprising: 
 means for accessing selected digital content from a set of available digital content, wherein the set of available digital content is provided at a publisher website, and wherein the set of available digital content is provided or generated by multiple, different digital content providers;    means for viewing or listening to more than a sampling of the selected digital content, for free, if at least one predetermined criterion is satisfied; and,    means for providing at least one time-shifted digital advertisement associated with an advertiser website,    wherein the publisher and at least one content provider each automatically receive a portion of advertiser-provided compensation based on the providing of the at least one time-shifted digital advertisement associated with the advertiser website.    
   
   
       19 . The system of  claim 18  wherein the predetermined criterion is whether the means for providing at least one time-shifted digital advertisement is installed at a client-side computer that is to receive the selected digital content.  
   
   
       20 . The system of  claim 18  wherein the means for providing at least one time-shifted digital advertisement includes means for launching a browser and displaying a web page associated with the advertiser website, wherein the web page is contextually associated with a user-based internet search.